Chicago has been selected as the host city for the 2024 Democratic National Convention and will serve as a backdrop as President Joe Biden makes the case for reelection and Democrats look to retake the House and expand their one-seat majority in the Senate.

“This is the first step to Democrats winning the midwest,” a former Democratic aide from Chicago said in a text to Supercreator.

The Democratic National Committee announced the decision on Tuesday morning and said it was made in part due to Chicago’s location in the heart of the “blue wall,” a region states including Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota that were crucial to President Biden’s 2020 election and the Democrats’ overperformance in the 2022 midterms.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times was the first to report the news.

The city is also expected to help Democrats showcase their investments in infrastructure and manufacturing and demonstrate its leadership on issues like gun violence as a city as the nation grapples with a worsening gun violence crisis. (Illinois has an assault weapons ban.)

Chicago earned the nod over Atlanta, a city that was key to winning two Georgia seats that flipped the Senate in 2021 and helped Democrats pick up a seat last year.

A Democratic aide from Atlanta called the DNC’s decision a “shortsighted decision based on a shortfall of hotel suites instead of a place that shows how we can change the future for a better democracy.”

The DNC said the abundance of hotels and their proximity to the convention venues played a role in its decision. New York City and Houston were also under consideration to host the convention.

President Biden called Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois to share the news on Tuesday before traveling to Northern Ireland.

“I look forward to welcoming everyone to the Midwest [and] showing off our diverse communities, impeccable hospitality, and world-renowned venues,” Pritzer said in a tweet. “There is no better place to tell the story of [Joe Biden and Kamala Harris].

Republicans will hold their national convention in Milwaukee next year.